With 70% of the population already vaccinated, companies are increasingly presenting their plans for a return to growth. According to the consulting firm Marakon Associates, companies are only able to achieve 60% of the potential of their strategies, presenting as the main causes for a below-expected performance: a) rather optimistic estimation of resources, b) ineffective communication of the strategy to the organization, c) poorly defined actions needed to meet the objectives and d) lack of monitoring of strategic objectives.
All of us have experienced these factors to a greater or lesser extent during our professional careers. Many organizations continue to set unrealistic objectives and fail to achieve them, creating an organizational culture of underperformance.
The objective of our article is to mention a set of rules or vulgarly named check-list to help companies capture the maximum possible value from their strategies and thus have motivated work teams.
- Simple and objective strategy: Although strategy is an abstract term, it is necessary to explain to the organization where the company is headed and the reason for this direction, otherwise they will not be able to make the necessary plans to execute this plan.
- Non-forecasting assumptions: the company’s management must consider the discussion of hypotheses and not financial forecasts. Working on hypotheses is important for the teams to identify the factors that have led to the success/failure of their plans.
- Methodology of work: the process of analysis of the hypotheses has to be exhaustive so that the entire organization contemplates the critical variables of the business. It is important to involve the different departments/subsidiaries of the company in the creation of the work methodology in order to obtain a higher success rate.
- Availability of resources: Once the path, hypotheses and methodology have been discussed, it is important for the organization to discuss the availability ofresources (human, financial, etc.) to achieve the objectives. Having the visibility of what resources we need as soon as possible will significantly increase the probability of success.
Priorities, Priorities, Priorities: Once the above definitions have been made, it is necessary to see the order in which the strategic priorities are executed as well as who is responsible for them. Many decisions in an organization are made in cascade and it is important to know who is responsible at each moment.- Performance measurement: once the actions are started, it is necessary to measure the impact they are having on the achievement of the objectives, so that we can measure the use of the resources.
- Incentives for the achievement of results: to ensure that the objectives are achieved, it is necessary that the organization is rewarded for the achievement of the results and thus create a positive organizational culture and towards the achievement of the objectives.
“With order and time is the secret to do everything, and to do it well”.
Pitágoras
